Transcripts For CSPAN Louisiana Gov. Edwards Holds Coronavirus Briefing 20240713

Gov. Bel edwards good afternoon. Thank you for being here. This will serve as the briefing on the Severe Weather that was and mynced yesterday Daily Briefing on covid19. Local to thank all of the officials who joined us today. I know we have mayor Stacy Albritton mitchell and other elected officials including senator katrina jackson, senator jay morris, representative mike echols. We also have representative jones, i think. We do, right there. It is good to see you, fred. After i speak you will hear from congressman ralph abraham. We also have with us, as i have aen every day in baton rouge, doctor from the department of health and he can answer specific questions when it comes to covid19 testing and other things related to the coronavirus. We just completed a tour of some of the tornado damage across north louisiana. Tornadoese two confirmed. Thatain one was an ef to had a wind speed up to 120 miles per hour. I want to thank everyone for wearing a mask. It is critically important you do that. I was doing that until a moment ago before i came up to speak. What you do is you are being a good neighbor. You are really not so much protecting yourself, you are protecting your neighbors from you. I appreciate that because we have a ways to go with the covid19 Public Health emergency. Speaking of emergencies, yesterday we issued an Emergency Declaration regarding the tornado damage across five parishes across north louisiana. No parish was damaged more than parish. It looked like there were two tornadoes with a twomile storm track. So, as we stand here now, washita parish has active emergencies. Emergency that has been in place since january, the covid19 emergency, and the tornado emergency. Searchandrescue operations were just completed. Those were the secondary searchandrescues. Primary rescues have been earlier. When you see how significant the damage was, how widespread it was, the fact they are reporting three minor injuries and no fatalities and no serious injuries is a miracle. We should all be very thankful of the fact that not more people were injured or killed. The Vice President asked me this morning to relate everyone that he and the president were certainly leaning forward to do anything that needed to be done here that they can help with and keeping the people in their prayers. One of the things that has two emergencies playing off of one another is we know the black bayou pump station and west monroe took a direct hit from the tornado. It has been without power. The switches were destroyed. We dont know if the pumps were damaged, but they are inoperable and will be for some time. Of course, thats a problem because we have the high water emergency, and it wouldnt take much rain in the near future to cause flooding problems. Those 360inch palms are the most important in west monroe when it comes to making sure we can control floods. We will be working with the folks here in washita parish in west monroe to ascertain the damage where we will be trying to make sure we can do something about finding some other pumps to supplement the pumping that would take place in west monroe if there is going to be some rainfall. Structures in8000 washita parish without power. That is a significant number. I know some of the damage that took place because of the tornado, damaged serious electrical infrastructure to the point that it will be a couple of days before most of that power will be restored. We need everyone to be patient and treat every downed wire as if it is live. Many times it is not the storm directly that injures or kills people, its people who go out and work, cut trees, and are not mindful of the power lines and so forth. Be patient. Treat every line is if it is charged. In addition to washita parish we have two confirmed tornadoes in desoto parish. Damage assessments are coming in. There were a number of individuals who lost their homes in desoto parish. We are assessing damage of possible tornadoes in bienville, bowsher, red river, and webster parishes. I want to thank the local and state First Responders and emergency officials helping with the Recovery Mission will stop yesterday the Louisiana National guard delivered pumps and 10 pallets of water, about 22,000, to the city of monroe. Emergency preparedness prepared, they prepared a letter and sent it in for the Community Disaster loan program which provides operational funding to help local governments who have incurred a significant loss. Significant loss in revenue due to a Natural Disaster and that could affect their ability to deliver essential municipal services. Were trying to step up that program. Most minutes of polities in louisiana are familiar with it, because weve had to do it in the past. We requested verizon provide more cell coverage in the usrcted areas and sent a team for recovery. Administrator pete gaynor called and i spoke with him saying we would be submitting requests for individual and public assistance. We requested primary damage tosessments be allowed be done through photographs so we are not out there with covid19 having to physically inspect properties and interact with more people than is absolutely necessary. He was receptive to that idea, and i think we are going to be able to get that done. I can tell you that i was personally personally struck byt how much damage we saw in washita parish and how widespread it was. Have atornadoes mind of their own. Every time i look at the damage the homes are completely flattened and that home next door looks like it didnt get touched. Withouto much damage anyone being killed, we have that to be thankful for. I know that does not just happen. People were mindful of the fact that there were Severe Weather warnings and they took seriously the alerts they got. Over the last week or so we have been talking about how we have been flattening the curve and our trajectory was improving. That continues to be the case. Over 4000 new tests produced 421y positive cases for the state that brings us to a total of 21,000 and i think 16 cases statewide. Unfortunately we had 44 new statewideat is 840 and just a few days ago we were reporting 70. That number as tragic as it is is trending in the right direction for us. Hospitalizations and ventilators each went up but not at an alarming growth. Withd 50 new individuals covid19 in the hospitals across the state of louisiana and three ventilators were added to those already in service with covid19. Even though there are more people there the growth rate was not particularly alarming and indicates we are going in the right direction. I will tell you that anecdotally and somewhat nonanecdotally, i have received reports of people in louisiana over easter weekend not taking social distancing as seriously as they should have. Not following the stayathome order or the mitigation measures as they had been practiced for to that. I am encouraging everyone to get back and take this seriously. The reason we are trending in the right direction, the reason we are having slowing in the growth of cases and so forth and deaths is because of the social distancing, the hygiene practices, the stayathome order. All it takes to have a spike in cases and go back the other direction is for too many people to violate the order, too much social contact to spread this disease. I am asking everyone to do better and i can tell you that the social distancing did dashboard that tax Movement Tracks Movement Like the cell phone and gps statement, the state was not doing that well before. Asking people to take that seriously. As we announced last week we are seeing Racial Disparities and that comes with respect to deaths across the state of louisiana. We have reported 70 of covid19 deaths were among africanamericans even though they made it to 33 of the states population. That was the right percentage races ofercentage of individuals that were known. We have been able to update that a little bit, 60 of the deaths are among africanamericans and are white, 8. 8 percentagew is the of africanamericans dying makes up at least twice what their percentage of the population as a whole is. We have learned that the task force will study these Racial Disparities. We know that we have an obligation to better communicate during this covid19 emergency and make sure the task force pays dividends after. This is true for everyone. If you have an underlying Chronic Health condition such as hypertension, diabetes, Kidney Disease or Heart Disease and many others, that makes you especially vulnerable to this particular virus, to this we know that generally speaking africanamericans have these Chronic Health conditions in a inger proportion than others louisiana and around the country. Here and we want to speak about the parish, 300 84 cases of covid19 this is reportedby 3896 test and that includes instate tests and private labs and five deaths. The parish ranks 10th among parishes with the number of covid19 cases across the state. In region eight there are currently seven testing sites that have consisted of union, lincoln, jackson, caldwell, madison, east carol, west carol, and richland parishes. Have some good news in north louisiana. Theveport has opened emerging Viral Threat Lab that can process covid19 test results in 28 to 48 hours and have a high capacity of 1500 tests per day. The lab is receiving samples from all over the state and may take some testing from out of the state want to the louisiana peak has occurred. Idea to went from an testing samples in less than two weeks. It is now one of the highest capacity Testing Centers that we have in the state of louisiana. Researchers recently administered the first therapy in louisiana to a critically ill covid19 patient. The are the third state in the country to do that. This therapy uses plasma from individuals who have recovered from covid19. It is possible it contains antibodies to covid19, and could be promising to treating those with the virus. They were the second in the u. S. To offer a Clinical Trial inhaled nitric oxide Clinical Trial joining Harvard University and the university of alabama birmingham in that regard. They will begin covid19 testing in rural areas and northeast louisiana areas this week. It will repurpose mobile vans previously used for cancer screenings. This morning on our weekly governors call with the white house, the Vice President led the task force on that call. He and his advisers on the task force talked about the need to continue to improve on swabs so we can support testing all over the state. Nobody wants to be in the dark, and the more testing you have, the more you know what is going on in the state as a whole, but in particular regions of the state. We know there will be additional news this week about serology testing, Antibody Testing which will be important to have available. When we Start Talking about relaxing restrictions and reopening the economy and so forth, it will measure who has antibodies in their system, meaning they had covid19. That is significant because people will know they had it because they had a positive test result, but a lot of people, a significant percentage who have covid19 and do not know it. They will have the antibodies and it will be easier for them to go back to work and reengage sooner than it will be for other people. Dealing with devastating storm damage on top of a Public Health emergency is very difficult, and i want to thank all of the First Responders who have done a tremendous job managing the response to the tornado, managing the Public Health emergency as well. I continue to be appreciative of the doctors and nurses, respiratory therapists and Health Care Professionals across louisiana who are doing tremendous work. I will assure you we will get through this. We need people to be vigilant. I will hit on this one more time, i am encouraging people across louisiana and here in north louisiana to be patient, mindful of the stayathome order, mindful of social distancing, wearing a mask in public. Because the Grocery Store is open, does not mean you need to go every day. Go once a week, and you do not need to bring everyone your family. Continue to practice social distancing so you wash your hands more frequently with soap and water, use Hand Sanitizer when you cannot get soap and water. Control your cough. Stay home when you are sick. All of the things we have been talking about remain very important to get through this. A little bit on unemployment. We know as of today more than 89 million in benefits have been paid out across louisiana, that includes more than 21 million in state funds and the federal pandemic compensation pays up to 600 per individual per week. That comes to more than 66 million in louisiana. I want to encourage people who are eligible for the federal benefits, get 1099 workers selfemployed, you may have applied previously and told you are not eligible for state benefits, but you may be eligible for the enhanced benefit. We need you to continue to pursue those and make sure you do recertify every week as well. With that, i am going to turn over the podium to congressman abraham, who will make some remarks. He is a doctor and understands this better than i do. I want to say louisiana is gaining 2400 new medical professionals today. 124 graduates will gradually early today, they will be able to help support the surge across louisiana. some of them will leave the state, we are proud of the majority of them who will stay here. Unfortunately, they cannot get together because of social distancing and they will receive their diplomas electronically today. They can begin their careers as early as may 1 due to expedited licensing that will take place. We have 57 out of 124 lsu seniors matched in the louisiana. Of the 51 matched to programs in new orleans and shreveport, 34 matched to shreveport specifically. All of these people will get online and help us with this Public Health emergency, and i appreciate them for doing that, expediting the licensing as the Health Science center expedited their graduation. I will ask the congressman to come up, and when he finishes, we will answer your questions. Thank you, governor. Thank you for your quick response, as soon as the tornado left the ground, the governor and i had a conversation. The governor sent some supplies and we had a conversation. Thanks to President Trump and Vice President pence, we have been in contact with them and they stand ready to go at a moments notice. I will echo what the governor said, i am looking at the crowd, national guard, state police, fire, emt, nurses, physicians. First responders bring calm to chaos, to the uncertainty. When people see that you were doing your jobs, they appreciate it. It know that you are in the prayers and the hearts, and you are in their minds right now because when they see you in the community, again, this is a calm that they need and look forward to on a daily basis. We have been through tough times before, we will go through them again. Louisiana and rely on hope, faith, hardware. And hard work. We will get through this as we got through other disasters. Governor, thank you for what youre doing. More importantly, thank you for what you are doing. Thank you, governor. Gov. Edwards thank you, congressman. The partnerships and communication are working. The congressman and i had a call call yesterday, we were on the phone with the Vice President and fema, and yesterday we had quick communications. It is local, state, federal, and it is all working. That is not to say it is perfect, but people are working extremely hard to bring relief to people here across louisiana with respect to the tornadoes and covid19. With that, i will take a few questions if you have them. [inaudible] gov. Edwards i did not. It was a purposeful decision on my part. It had to do with the covid19 emergency. Even though i come from a different part of the state, i was trying to make sure we do not have too much interaction. It is a delicate balance because people were cleaning up and working hard already to get past the tornado damage. I saw some people in homes that would not be habitable tonight or anytime soon. I chose not to stop and talk to them because of the covid19 emergency. This is the first time i have shown up, we have had plenty of Natural Disasters to clean up, and this is the first time i did not interact with people who sustained damage to the properties. Reporter is it more about the complication of responding . Gov. Edwards the question is, the difficulty of compounding the emergencies at once. I guess we will see that if we get some rain in the near future. The absence of those pumps will come into play. It becomes hard. It is not good news, but it was helpful that we knew 48 hours in advance of the chance of Severe Weather. We were leaning forward. As we talk about getting tarps and water, we are thinking about ppe for people who will hand out the tarps and water, and making sure you can do things to maintain social distancing, and the hygiene practices we need so we do not inadvertently have people catching the disease, and presenting to the hospital than we need to have. It makes everything much harder. The good news is that we did not have serious injuries or fatalities, and i think at last count next door in mississippi which was the same weather system, right after it left louisiana it started having an impact there. They had 11 fatalities and the governor thought when they finished the search and rescue they would have more than 11. We do have a lot to be thankful for. We need to keep those folks in our prayers as well. Any other questions here . Reporter for storm victims who lost their jobs and other homes, what help can they look forward to . Gov. Edwards first of all, they need to know we declared an emergency for covid19, and for tornadoes. I let fema know we would request individual assistance, and most people are familiar with because of the number of times we have had to do this. Public assistance, we are moving as quickly as we can. Whether those things become available, it turns on how much damage there is. We have to get the preliminary damage assessments done, and we talked to fema about doing the damage assessments virtually so we can look at photographs of a particular structure and not have to send people into the structure because of covid19. This is a little bit unique and different than we have done it before. We have got femas full attention. I have had a conversation with the administrator, and the federal administrator in washington, and i believe we will be able to bring assistance quickly. One of the things i am worried about, you would typically have a shelter set up so that everybody who lost their homes and did not have a relative or friend who could take them in would typically go to a school or gymnasium where we set up a shelter. With covid19 Public Health emergency, that is not the most appropriate way to shelter people. We are trying to get people into hotel rooms as quickly as possible, and the red cross has been helping with this as well. This is something we can do as well through category b protective measures that we have in place because of the declaration from the federal government on covid19. We are working with fema on that. Some of these people will need a place to stay for quite some time. While many were renters, there is not a lot of rental stock to move into. We have no shortage of things to do, and i want to assure people we are moving as quickly as we can. Any other questions . Reporter the president has indicated lifting measures by april 30. If those federal guidelines are relaxed will you follow suit . Gov. Edwards it is too early to know. He is talking sometime after april 30, i do not know what that timeline looks like. He indicated what he does may not be uniformly implemented in all states at the same time because you have some states that are obviously more impacted than others. Just look at the case counts, that timeline looks like. He indicated what he does may not be uniformly implemented in they typically refer to them as hotspots. Louisiana is one of those hotspots. We will continue to work with the White House Task force, and i know tomorrow he is announcing a council that will be advising him that will be comprised of doctors and scientists and Business People on how to open the country back up. As dr. Fauci said last week, it is not like flipping a light switch when you go from being dark to light at all one time. This will be some sort of transition, and we will do that way here in the louisiana. I cannot tell you what that will look like yet, but we will be working hard with all the experts to get that to get out. When we have something to announce, we will. We will be announcing later this week and Economic Resiliency Recovery Task force that we will stand up here in the louisiana that will advise me and local officials as well. [indiscernible] how did they get them tested without exposing themselves . [indiscernible] we do have Testing Available for all symptomatic people and we are talking about those symptoms that are associated with covid19. Want all of these individuals to the cough, the shortness of breath, fever, and so we do want all of these individuals to be tested. In any individual who was watching this, if you have questions about whether you should be tested, and how you go about that, you can call 211. 211 will answer those questions. Specifically with respect and it was hard for me to hear you these are elderly people who may live by themselves and will not be able to drive themselves. Reporter [inaudible] how do we get them to the testing without exposing them or someone else . Gov. Edwards it remains the case that if you think you are exposed, you need to treat yourself as if you have been exposed and quarantine for 14 days. If you develop symptoms, that is when you need to be tested. It remains the case that the test is not reliable for people who do not yet have symptoms. It could give you a false negative when you have it, but you are going to think you dont, and you will continue to take yourself out of isolation and quarantine and start interacting with people. If you become symptomatic you need to be tested. If you make contact, quarantine. If you develop symptoms, you need to be tested, and you can call 211 for questions. It is time for the doctor to earn his keep. [laughter] to echo what the governor was saying, importantly, people are encouraged to reach out for to their primary care providers. If they are well enough to stay at home and seek that counsel. Anybody who is feeling severely ill should be contacting 911. We want to get medical attention to somebody who needs to know when you call share your 911 symptoms so the First Responders who come can take protective measures for themselves. 211 can connect you with a local primary care provider. There is a network of Quality Health care centers to do testing. Reporter [inaudible] they are having trouble in some parishes because they dont know who should be enforcing the 10 person rule at funerals. [indiscernible] this is a part of the order that is hard for anyone to follow. We understand there is no time when you need to be near people anymore. To echo what the governor said previously, hopefully we dont have to rely on enforcement at a time like that and we ask people to be mindful of the 10 person limit. It is not a show of your devotion or love to that person, it is about keeping people healthy. If you are in a highrisk group over the age of 65 or somebody who has underlying comorbidities or conditions like high Blood Pressure or diabetes, if they are hard to control you need to be taking the steps to not expose yourself to people. We are asking Funeral Directors and churches to be creative in the way we can stay connected during these times. Facebook live or face time or any kind of virtual connection device like that, let people come together without having to physically be together. Friends knowastor that i am looking to them to help enforce this as well. Yesterday was Easter Sunday but quite frankly there is not a setting more conducive to the spread of this virus than people sitting in close proximity to one another for an hour or two hours at a time at a church service. You typically see people of all age groups and people who are obviously older and more vulnerable. I am asking people to comply. We will get through this and get back to the time when we can be as close as we are accustomed to and notd be together just do crawfish boils but get back at our worship services. Another question then we will be headed back. Has any decision been made [indiscernible] issue a proclamation tomorrow i think is the day that so you willcted know who the interim superintendent of education is. I dont want to get too far ahead of myself. Week, ited this last is my intention now to announce that school will not resume in the sense that students will be going to school going through the school building. Continues butr they will not be going back onto campuses. The distancelearning and other things that have been implemented in trying to educate our children, those things will continue and you will have a lot more information coming in in the fiscal districts locally about what that will look like. Around the 20th of may is the last day of school typically, and it will not work either time this is over, and we do not know what happens after april the 30th anyway. But it is just not going to be feasible, and to resume the , thereon of our schools will be more information forthcoming tomorrow for me, and then you will hear from the department of education and your local School Districts as to what that will look like here and elsewhere around louisiana. Look, i would like to thank you for coming out and everyone for social distancing out there, and wearing masks. I ask everyone to continue to be patient and to follow the stayathome order. Lets make sure we are practicing social distancing and good hygiene and continue to lift one another up in prayer. As tough as it is right now, remember, start with the prayer of thanksgiving and be thankful, as i am, that the tornadoes did not cause more injury and did not cause a single death in the state of louisiana, and then lets lift one another and prayers to covid19, as well. Thank you. [applause] from baton rouge is retired Lieutenant General russel honore, former commander of joint task force katrina, here with us to talk about the Current Crisis and the administrations response and his states response. General, pleasure to have you with us this morning. Thanks so much